Hung wen tin san po pai lien chiao (1980)
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Directed by
Lieh Lo
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MyMovies
Genre: Action / Drama (more)
User Comments: Another Gem from Shaw Brothers (more)
User Rating: 8.7/10 (52 votes)
Credited cast:
Chia Hui Liu .... Hong Wen-Ting
Lieh Lo .... Pai Mei (White Lotus)
Lung Wei Wang .... Kau Tin-Chung
Kara Hui .... Mei-Hsiao (as Ying Hung Wai)
Hou Hisao .... Personal Swordsman of White Lotus
Ching-Ching Yeung .... Ching-Ching (as Ching Ching Yeung)
(more)
Also Known As:
Clan of the White Lotus (1980)
Fists of the White Lotus (1980)
Runtime: USA:95 min
Country: Hong Kong
Language: Cantonese
Color: Color
Sound Mix: Mono
Character name search
The character 'pai mei' (using whole word searching) has been played by;
Male characters:
Chia Hui Liu (Johnny Mo/Pai Mei)
. . . Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004)
Lieh Lo (Priest Pai Mei)
. . . Hung Hsi-Kuan (1977)
Lieh Lo (Pai Mei (White Lotus))
. . . Hung wen tin san po pai lien chiao (1980)
Lieh Lo (Pai Mei)
. . . Shao Lin ying xiong bang (1979)
Beginning in the 17th century the Shaolin Temple underwent a series of internal crises and power struggles, linked to the political upheavals of the time. The sacking of the Temple in 1647 was due in large part to rise to power of the new Ching dynasty. Having acceded to the throne three years prior to this event, the first Ching Emperor wanted to end the existence of autonomous armies roaming the country of China. This first sacking of the Temple, seen as a source of inspiration and real control of these armies, led to the massacre of numerous monks, the beginning of the end of the Shaolin Temple, and spread of Shaolin techniques as many surviving monks fled to Southern China into smaller religious institutions.
By the 18th century the Shaolin style (or lineage) was represented by five Grand Masters, also known in popular Chinese culture as the “Invincible Five”. The leader of these five Hong Mei (Red Eyebrows), patriarch of the Temple, died without naming a successor.
The five Grand Masters
known as the « Invincible Five »
• Grand Master Pei Mei (White Eyebrows), also known under the name of Dao Nhien, the Taoist. (His real name was Chu Long Tuyen).
• Grand Master Nou Mei (Ng Mui), Nun who practiced the style of White Crane. She taught Yin Wing Chun and Hoang Hoa Bao, founders of the two lineages of present day Wing Chun.
• Grand Master Phung Dao Duc who lived for many years at the foot of the Er-Mei Mountain.
• Grand Master Chi Thien Su, who continued to practice Orthodox Southern Shaolin.
• Grand Master Mieu Hien, the only laymen among the five who also practiced Southern Shaolin style.
The Alliance with the Emperor
Chi Thien Su was chosen to be the new Grand Master, to represent the Shaolin Temple. Grand Master Pei Mei did not accept this decision. Since the arrival of the Manchu’s to power the Chinese nationalists dreamed of overthrowing the regime viewed as a foreign aggressor and occupier and restoring a native Chinese Emporor. Partisans of the old Ming dynasty, having lost all their power, fermented and financed many revolts throughout the country. Most of the inheritors of the Shaolin Temple found themselves on the side of these nationalists. However the “Invincible” Grand Master Pei Mei preferred a good foreign government to a corrupt Chinese one, and thus allied himself with the forces of Emperor Chian Long (1736-1796).
Grand Master Pei Mei thus left his native land and lived the life of an itinerant monk. One day he settled on Mount Er Mei, the sacred Taoist Mountain, and undertook the study of this religion. At that time, the Emporor requested his help at the ehad of his army . With 50,000 men under him, Grand Master Pei Mei assaulted the last vestiges of Shaolin tradition, the Shaolin Temple itself in Henan. In order to avoid a blood bath, he challenged in a dual the “Invincible” Grand Master Chi Thien Su (who practiced the iron head technique) defending the Temple. At the end of a gruelling hand to hand fight, Grand Master Pei Mei broke the neck of Chi Thien Su with a movement that has remained ever since one of the signatures of the style.
The end of the Orthodox Shaolin school
In the chaos that followed, a bloody struggle was fought between the martial arts practitioners of different philosophical obedience and offshoots. These small scale clan wars of attrition meant everyone taking the law into their own hands. This state of affair lasted sadly for many years. One story told for example is that of the mandarin Phong Sui Yung, grand son of Grand Master Mieu Hien (one of the “Invincible Five”), who killed in a dual a certain Loi Lao Ho. Who was himself the son of Master Ly Ba Son, student of Grand Master Pei Mei. This type of event largely contributed to the gutting of the Orthodox Shaolin tradition and its school of teaching. It was during this period in fact that Wing Chun was developed in opposition to the Pei Mei style (though not known as such at this time).
For a short period, Founder and Grand Master Pei Mei maintained a loose alliance with the Manchu Emperor, who in return allowed him to teach and practice freely. Because of this, his school was able to teach exclusively monks and still survive, whereas other nascent styles went into hiding amongst the civilian population. His teachings would thus remain secret. As far as concerned the remnants of the Shaolin Temple, Pei Mei was considered a traitor, in the service of the foreign occupier. The Founder of the style had numerous students, among them Masters Ly Bai Son, Lao Tan Trung, Ma Hung, Bach Dong, Phuong That.
Grand Master
Cheung Lai Chuen
Grand Master Cheung Lai Chuen
The Grand Master of the second generation was Quang Hue, a monk; we do not know the names of any of his other students.
During the 19th century, Chuk Fat Van (third generation, 18 ?? - 1920) was the Grand Master of the School. He taught quite a few students among them Lien Sanh. Grand Master Chuk Fat Van was the first to teach the system to a non monk, Grand Master Cheung Lai Chuen (1880-1964).
The Challenge of the Master of Dragon style
Grand Master Cheung Lai Chuen had learnt in his childhood the Hakka Wanderer’s style. He then rapidly became Master of a branch of Dragon style. Particularly talented in his martial arts skills he was then known as one of "3 Tigers of the East River", when rid the area of numerous gangs of bandits who terrorised the local population. One day he met a monk in a local inn…
>Follow-up..
After nearly ten years of non continuous training under Grand Master Chuk Fat Van, the Grand Master Cheung Lai Chuen acquired great renown. He was known at one time as the King of the Seven Provinces”, he taught in the military school of Dr Sun Yat Sen, hero of China and founder of the Chinese Nationalist Party, the Kuomintang. During his life time he trained more than 120. In 1949, he emigrated to Hong Kong, where, until his death he continued to teach. During his long life, he opened more than 20 schools throughout China, often by defeating the Master of the School and integrating their schools and sometimes their techniques into his own.
Grand Master Tang Hue Bac
The Rise of Grand Master Tang Hue Bac
Vietnam, at the end of the 1930s. During this time, Cholon was undergoing a period of rapid economic growth. This neighbourhood was rapidly becoming a city within the city of Saigon, thanks to its control of maritime trade.
> follow up...
His Last Public Duel
Grand Master Tang Hue Bac had through his numerous exploits forged himself a huge reputation. Many unwise people, seeking glory had in fact challenged him over the years and were brutally defeated.
> follow up...
(as told by Grand Master Nam Anh)
The twelfth Master trained by the great Cheung Lai Chuen was Grand Master Tang Hue Bac (Tang Khaï Minh was his real name), Master in Choy Lee Fut. Having been beat in a well publiced duel that he provoked against Grand Master Cheung Lai Chuen, Master Tang Hue Bac became his loyal. After spending many years with his Master, Grand Master Tang Hue Bac immigrated in the early 1930s to Cholon, Vietnam, the Chinese neighbourhood of Saigon (Ho-Chi-Minh-City). There he taught exclusively to the Chinese community. He had many students including: Lu Dieu Phan, Trieu Di Van, Lam Tuong, Huynh Chieu, Tang Bi Duc, Quan Hung, Huyen Lu Can, Hoang Qui Nam, Luc Tho Nhu, Ly Cam Truong, Au Kiet Chi, Diep Quoc Luong (Tai Chek Cam) et Lu Ping Woon.
Grand Master Nam Anh
Grand Master Nam Anh Ends Hostilities
Grand Master Lu Ping Woon, a doctor/herbalist by training, a long time student if younger then many other students of Grand Master Tang Hue Bac at the time, was present at his deathbed. It thus fell onto him to continue the tradition of Pei Mei in Vietnam. He made good this task until his death in 1997. Grand Master Nam Anh already Grand Master of Wing Chun of all of Southern Vietnam, decided, en 1980, to study Pei Mei. He became the humble student of Grand Master Lu Ping Woon in order to complete his knowledge of these two great martial arts traditions, who were often rivals in Southern Vietnam. He also had the opportunity to study under other masters of Pei Mei, unrelated to Tang Hue Bac’s lineage. Later he officially ended the simmering hostilities between the Wing Chun and Pei Mei schools.
Shaloin Temple History:
Martial Arts were brought to China by the learned Indian buddhist monk Bodhidharma in the sixth century A.D. Bodhidharma ended his pilgrimage at the Shaolin Temple. There, he wrote the three books which are still considered as the most ancient proof of a systematic body of knowledge of the martial arts in China, and taught monks techniques to train the mind and body as a foundation for combat skills, giving birth to the Shaolin School.
While a variety of related martial arts techniques were introduced in the following centuries, the Orthodox Shaolin style remained until the eighteenth century the only formally organized style to be recognized as conform to buddhist teachings. It predates the Taoist styles, introduced by the Wu Tang School in the eleventh century.
After the eighteenth century, the tradition spread well beyond the walls of the Shaolin monastery. Today, "Shaolin Temple" refers to the whole set of teachings that were spawn by the Orthodox Shaolin tradition.
Bodidharma
Origins of Kung Fu
The roots of Kung Fu can be found in antique writings dating back to the period of Warring States: they reveal the existence of fighting techniques, with and without arms. Battle accounts of that time illustrate the detailed organization of the armies and the dreadful efficacy of those warriors. These techniques originally developed for military purposes were taught by heteroclites, requested ad hoc by the emperors since Kung Fu schools did not yet exist. It would take many a century for the Kung Fu Schools to come into being as a structured organization whose commitment was to maintain, propagate and develop the martial arts.
Under the philosophical influence of Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism, two great Schools were created: that of Shaolin and Wu Tang. The first is Buddhist and the second is Taoist. The Buddhist School dates back to the sixth century A.D., well before its Taoist counterpart which appeared in the eleventh century.
The arrival of the learned Indian Buddhist monk Bodidharma at the Shaolin Temple marks the beginning of Shaolin Kung Fu. Born in 483 A.D., the third son of a Brahman king of the Sardili clan, well educated according to his time, he was proficient in the arts, politics, sutras and warfare. He was not quite thirty when he left the princely comforts to dedicate his life to attaining enlightenment. Having become a reputable monk, he went to China to propagate the teachings of Buddha as had done many of his Indian predecessors during the era of the Three Kingdoms.
Welcomed at the Kuan Temple in the province of Guangdong (Canton) where he taught in around 527 A.D., the Governor of Guangdzou recommended Bodidharma, alias Tamo, to Emperor Liang Wu. Legend reports that the Emperor did not appreciate Tamo's discourse, making but a brief stay in Nanking. So, he headed for Luoyang, his pilgrimage ending at the Shaolin monastery, a few kilometres away from the capital. As he had taught Chan Buddhism (more commonly known as the Japanese Zen) for several years, Bodidharma established that the very poor health condition the monks were in, would not allow them to raise their consciousness and attain enlightenment. Their life style emphasized meditation at the expense of the physical body. Concerned, he withdrew to a cave and meditated for several years. As legend tells it, these nine years of isolation gave him the inspiration for the three books which are still considered as the most ancient proof of a systematic body of knowledge of the martial arts in China..
Li Shimin
The Three Sacred Books
These treaties dealt with the three dimensions of the human being according to the traditional concept of the Orient : the physical, the energetic and the mental planes of the body. The first such work, the Book of the transformation of muscles and tendons (Yi Kin King in Cantonese dialect), illustrated the basic exercises for reinforcing the body and increasing the suppleness as well as techniques for combat. The second, the Book on the cleansing of the marrow, concentrated on energetic exercises. And finally, the third collection was dedicated to spiritual exercises. When Bodidharma returned, he taught these techniques for training both the body and the mind. Once the monks had made this a matter of regular training, their bodily condition and health had been improved. They now had enough strength to do their day's work and were vigorous enough to perform their spiritual exercises.
The Temple Destroyed and Rebuilt
Learning combat techniques allowed them to be able to defend themselves against assaults on their monasteries in times of war, and against thieves on the roads. Destroyed and often rebuilt, persecuted by some emperors and valued by others, torn between Buddhist, Taoist and Confucianist lobbies competing for imperial favour, the Shaolin Temple not only survived centuries of political intrigues, but was able to become politically, economically and socially important. It was renown for its powerful combatants, defenders of the poor and the oppressed. They won fame in many great battles and so instilled imperial history with their glorious deeds.
Chian Lung
Prosperity
At the beginning of the Tang dynasty, the monks played a decisive role in the subjugation of General Wang Shichong by Li Shimin (reign from 626 to 649 A.D.). As an expression of his gratitude, the Emperor (also known as Tai Tsung) gave the monastery more land and authorized them to have their own army. The temple became more illustrious, more prosperous and ultimately a great centre for training in the martial arts during the Yuang and Ming dynasties.
The End of the Temple
At the beginning of the Ching dynasty, under the reign of Kan Shi (1661-1722 A.D.), the Shaolin Temple remained a powerful centre of learning. Its renown attracted a good number of students, thanks be to an emperor who encouraged the development of all religions. Among these students, many were supporters of the demised Ming dynasty. Trained in the most efficacious combat techniques, these rebels spread quickly throughout the country, most notably in the South and quickly became a serious threat to the government. Emperor Kan Shi severely repressed the Shaolin Temple and all of its offshoots throughout the 17th century when it proved to be a centre of resistance for the Ming dynasty. His grandson, Emperor Chian Lung (1736-1796 A.D.) organized new punitive expeditions against the Temple : stories of betrayal and of the growing number of rebellious secret societies connected with the monastery contributed to the total destruction of the Temple and to the massacre of the monks and nuns. Only five great masters survived the butchery, the « Invincible Five » : Jee Shin, Fung Tao Tak, Mieu Hien, Pei Mei and Ng Mui.
Hi there. The character in KB 2 is based on the character in fist of the white lotus played again by gorden liu. This in turn is loosely based on the historical pai mei (Pak mei, bak mei, bai mei depending on romanisation) who lived supposedly in about 1750. Facts are unclear but many claim that the origional monk escaped the burning of the Shaolin temple along with 4 others and may or may not have had something to do with its destruction. He then became a Daoist hermit on mount emei (sichuan) and developed his aggressive style that was later named after its creator. I myself practice the real kung fu style that he supposedly invented although there is no actual proof that he existed in real life at all. The system is designed to mame or kill an opponent as opposed to suppress or disable.
Hope this is of some interest
Thanks
w27
sorry if someone has said this earlier, I havent read all 5 pages.
Pai Mei might not be dead! They didn't show him actually dying after he was poisoned...
people of that skill in Chinese martial arts and everything might also know meditation and acupuncture and stuff, they might know how to get poison out of their bloodstream. Yeah, I know he's a fictional (well, almost) character in a movie storyline thats already ended, and it dosent really matter, and I'm probably crazy for saying this, but I refuse to accept that Pai Mei is dead.
I feel obsessed, I signed up for the forums JUST to say this 🙁
anyways, I just saw Kill Bill vol. 2 tonight as well... thats even more sad, but its a long story why.